I went in for an ultrascreen test today, and was really nervous about it. The nurse did the ultrasound, and she told me so far everything looked perfect. I still have to wait a week or so for the full test results. My question is, how much can they tell from the sonogram? She said everything looked perfect, does that mean that most likely everything will be ok, or does the ultrasound mean nothing at this point and I have to wait for the blood results combined with the sono? I felt relieved after the ultrasound, but now I'm starting to think that it really wasn't able to tell me much! Can anybody explain this to me! Thanks!
?2008-07-09T13:05:20Z
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They can check for normal development of body parts already. And they can get a fair idea of if there is Down Syndrome now just from ultrasound measurements (using measurements and calculations from certain body parts). The blood test will confirm it.
Typically, when you have an ultrasound early on, the main purpose is to accurately determine how far along you are...dates people give are often not accurate and this helps the doctor know where you are at in your pregnancy. I am amazed that the nurse or technician said anything to you at all about what she saw. Usually they don't say one word and leave the doctor to tell you everything. I would think the main thing at this point would be to see if the development of the baby is progressing on schedule. Ask these questions to your doctor and best of luck to you.
At 12 weeks they are checking if the fetal size corresponds to LMP. They are also checking for a regular heartbeat and for the sack. There is nothing else they can really do at this point. You will have a stream of bloodwork and other tests including another sonogram throughout your pg. All these tests are needed to determine the heath of the pregnancy as well as the health of the baby. So keep going to the appointments to improve the likelihood of a healthy baby!
Everything is probably fine but they can't tell on genetic disorders or anything serious right away because the baby is too small. At the 20 week ultrasound is when they really check for abnormalities. If they said everything is fine at 12 then good chances are nothing is seriously wrong or it would have caught their eye
actually ultrasounds that early can give more accurate due dates with in 3-5 day accuracy rather than the ones at 20 weeks which give a 6-7 day variance